Recent statements from Indian leaders and police officers gives away the new strategy on the war on Naxalism. To make the movement "headless" by carrying out selective assassination of its leaders with the help of Israeli operatives

Plucky savvyness combined with unnecessary bravado has recently marked the attempts at media interface by some Maoist leaders. There are benefits to reap and a price to pay, as a result. On the one hand, it has been a long time coming for the Maoists to come out of their jungle bases and give press conferences, or invite selected correspondents to visit their bases under armed escort. They correctly understood that their political program (and not their military campaign only) needed to be promoted and publicized. They realized that innovative tactics needed to be implemented to popularize their struggles and their demands and acquire some mainstream presence. It took them a long time to also realize that when you wish to take on the state of India, that you must at least marginally capture the imagination of some of those who read papers, surf the net, hang out in cafes and do occasionally get agitated about issues of justice, honesty and righteousness. Such people cannot be ignored. In fact their chatter can eventually affect the mood of the nation. For too long the media in India has been significantly successful in disorienting, deflecting and mesmerizing the minds of urban folks into imagining a country that is not up to par because it is behind the West in so many ways. This state of stupor persists, but there is now an increasing awareness in some circles at least, that India’s postures about its growth, success and international stature can overnight become a hollow dream, if the word gets around that India has treated its first citizens with violence, deprivation, displacement and eventual genocide. The hollowness behind the growth figures, much of which has limited authenticity when seen in terms of the high current account deficit, high unemployment, incredible rise of prices, is also becoming evident even among the India- shining crowd. Despite all the bravado that Kamal Nath and Montek Ahluwalia indulge in, in Davos (after all they would all be seeking International jobs, very soon) the baseline figures of India’s economic progress are quite undermined with the phenomenal rise in poverty, illiteracy, infant malnutrition, farmer suicides and poor potable water facilities and sanitation related fatalities. It is an interesting development that one of the Government’s own bodies has declared that the assault on India’s tribals “is one of the largest land grabs since Columbus”, –that brigand, pirate and drunken sailor, who landed somewhere, near the Bahamas and declared he had found India.

Well, a section of India’s population-I daresay a large section– also needs to discover India. And, they are doing so. And it is because of that, there are some magazines on the net, and on print, that are taking the time to trek into the Naxalite bases and interview their leaders. Not everything is lost to the vacuous, hold the crotch, ape the West, get BPO-fever generation, MCed by the Shahrukh, Infosys, IPL and Kingfisher cultural nexus.

Initially, the Maoists’ planned to let some of their spokesperson come overground. This experiment failed, as the Governments of West Bengal (GWB) and India (GOI) wasted no time in slapping them with Unlawful Activities charges and put them in the slammer. No one talks about them anymore, other than the struggling Civil Liberties organizations. They are forgotten. Fortunately for the Maoists, there are a large number of academics and sympathetic journalists, ( as opposed to the band of poets, actresses and intellectuals who made a half hearted attempt to raise their voices on Lalgarh and then withdrew into their shells in no time at the first threats from the GWB) who have taken it upon themselves not to be intimidated and have spoken out in fairly clear terms both on TV and as well on the web and print media on the hypocrisy and superficiality of the mainstream media’s analysis (or extreme lack of it) in parroting the GOI’s and GWB’s mendacious piety about non-violence, abjuring arms, law and order and “foreign hand.”

In India, except for the alternate press and in most cases Tehelka, the media engages in sensationalist lies or they repeat the lies of the government and they get away with it. In India, an Inspector General of Police blatantly concocts lies about the wealth and assets of Chatradhar Mahato and also gets away with it, without anybody seeking litigation against spreading such falsehood. In India, the police go after the wives, husbands, children, brothers and sisters of those who are absconding or have launched cases against the police. In India, police chiefs openly boast about how to make a cold blooded execution look like an encounter and the Home Minister meets with those same experts to discuss democracy. In India, judges make pronouncements on corporate crime, based on whether it is good for India’s image or not! In India, an 80-year old woman’s breasts get chopped off and an 18-month old child’s fingers get lopped off by anti-Naxalite vigilantes and the press orders a martini with a twist and watches the sunset over Juhu.

Well, the Maoists have broken some ground in bringing to the surface the mess that lies below the pink obscenity that is the Indian parliament, where over one hundred and fifty criminally accused thugs occupy seats. The Maoists leaders have been audacious and dignified in giving interviews after much planning and deployment of their own security measures. It was necessary, because otherwise the Arnab Goswamis and the Barkha Dutts and their unapologetic clones were having a field day, dishing out report after report about the murderous Maoists, without analyzing what had been going on for several years, both at Abujhmarh and Lalgarh. For too long they were unable to convey their message to middle and upper class readers and net surfers about what they were fighting for. Now there is sudden mainstream discussion, on MOUs, Schedule 5 and 6, Abujmarh, Dantewada, Bastar and sites have sprung up all over the world that follow the Indian state’s war against its own people.

It is now time for the Maoists to take stock of the situation. The Indian state was caught off guard, both on the ground and in the airwaves. They sent in their khaki-pant wearing, Enfield rifle toting constables after the Maoists and they came back soon, pissing in their pants. Then they sent in their AK-47 and Insas-rifle toting para-military forces after the Maoists. They also have come back with their tails between their legs. Then they deployed Special Forces with reptilian and canine names like Cobra, Greyhound or some other fearsome moniker like Garudas. Their boats were sunk and their anti-mine vehicles were blown up and their helicopters beat a hasty retreat.

Enter the Israelis

It has been known for several years that India has acquired over 4,000 Galil 7.62 mm super sniper rifles, and night vision sights, laser range finders and other targeting equipment. This is not an infantry rifle, but the ammunition is the same as an Indian INSAS and an AK-47, purchased from Rumania. This is also all separate, of course from thermal imaging equipment, satellite transmission of such images and use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, better known as drones. All from Israel in the main. In fact India takes up more than 50% of Israel’s arms exports. It has also been known that India manufactures under license the Russian gas-fired, super sniper semi automatic Dragunov SVD59. Now comes the report of a special training session involving at least 30 top ranking officers who have just completed special training under "foreign" instructors. Nothing works in Indian media lingo than "foreign hand." But of course, in this case it does not matter, because the foreign hand is only for a good cause! These trainers are not bearded Jihadists or Asiatic desperadoes in the north east with Chinese made grenades. A report from the PTI states the following.

“Special task force to tackle Maoist insurgency”

Kolkata: The Maoist-infested states, including Jharkhand and Maharashtra, have set up a special task force in their bid to jointly tackle the Naxal problem, a senior West Bengal police officer said.

West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and some other Maoist-hit states have selected 30 officers for the special task force to deal with the Maoist problem, he said.

The 30 selected officers had undergone a month-long training programme at Ghatsila in Jharkhand. Some foreign army officials, who have experience in tackling guerrilla warfare, also imparted them training, the police officer said.”

Mr. Chidambaram had one of his associates state recently in a press conference that the strategy of his initiative is to render the Naxalites "headless." In other words he stated very clearly, that the target is to eliminate the leaders of the Naxalites. As per the same report, “a highly placed official in the security establishment told IANS earlier this week, "We believe there could be around 50 such leaders scattered all over. We are targeting them to make the entire movement headless and make a serious dent," the official said. ”

In a special report cited by the BBC, the following was also stated by a security official, “So we are specifically targeting the Maoist leadership and you will see a lot of special operations based on specific intelligence."

The official said that "almost all the states are doing their bit, and that a special operation in West Bengal earlier this week – in which Maoist military wing chief Koteswara Rao narrowly escaped arrest – was a good example of that. ”

It is significant that Ms. Mamata Banerjee, the Central Minister and self-appointed Bengal-saver, (and stand-up comedian, live theatre activist who attempted suicide with a black shawl and danced on JP Narayan’s car) and who one walked in lock-step with LK Advani, was ready to beg and plead to the Naxalites to come and negotiate with her. She must be in on Mr. Chidambaram’s deadly game plan.

She also knows that by the time of the next polls in West Bengal, if she cannot make a settlement in the continuously expanding Naxalite terrain, she will have a hard time putting up candidates to fight the CPI(M) . She wants to make a deal with the Maoists, while all along claiming that they do not exist! She is a mockery of her own self and a pivotal Quasimodo for PCC.

Selective assassination

Selective assassination, use of UAVs, missile attacks on selected homes and sniper fire has been a hallmark of the Israeli Mossad and Defence forces, not only in Gaza and the West Bank, but also in different parts of the world including South America, Iran and Europe. For the past several years it is now well-known that India has entered into very close collaboration with the IDF and over 32 non-disclosure arms and security agreements have been signed with them. The Mossad has titillated gun-and ammo freaks and underhanded counter-insurgency nutjobs with their secretive killing techniques. Assassination and murder that goes undocumented, un-prosecuted and never brought to light, when the Mossad is involved. The CIA fumbles, trips and gets blown up. Not the Mossad. That is why India has chosen them to deploy dirty tricks on India’s citizens. Perhaps, Mr. Chidambaram would like to take out the Maoists leaders one by one and he has realized that it will not happen by sending in 100,000 troops and anti-mine trucks or IAF helicopters. So the next tactic is to walk away from the roads and get special forces trained to go into the jungles and “live there like guerillas” and seek the Maoists in their hideouts. Therefore high power sniper rifles, night vision sights have become necessary. The "headless" statement should be studied carefully. I am wondering if it is actually code word for carrying out assassinations.

The report went on to further state the following: "The force would be named soon and it will be pressed into action as and when the training programme is completed," Director General of Police of West Bengal Bhupinder Singh told PTI.

"More officers would be recruited to strengthen the force after the completion of the training of the first batch," the DGP said.

They were given training on how to use highly sophisticated weapons and taught the technique to detect explosives, he said. They were also told how to survive in deep forest areas for longer period of time, the officer said. The main objective of the force will be to stay in forest areas near the base camps of the Maoists and to gather detailed information about their activities and their strength, Singh said.”

It would be propitious of these Maoist leaders not to fall into the traps being laid out by the security forces.

"Sapan Das Gupta Editor of Bangla People's March UAPA prisoner now in ventilation in mackanjee ward ICU, SSKM. Friends are invited by hospital authority to have a last look."

See report below from Express India news by Madhuparna Das. If any worse happens it will be a State murder.

P.Govindan kuttyEditor, People's March

Source: express News India

Kolkata The ban on the People’s March — a mouthpiece of the Maoists — was lifted by the Press & Registration Appellate Board (PRAB) over three months ago. But two persons arrested in Kolkata have been in jail since owing to their association with the publication.

The state police officers plead ignorance about the lifting of the ban.Sapan Dasgupta, editor of Bengali version of People’s March and Sadananda Singha, its publisher, were picked up from their homes in Garia by the Special Branch of Kolkata Police on October 7. The press in Maniktala Industrial Area was raided and all documents and equipment were seized.

They were charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for publishing a banned periodical that allegedly contained “seditious matter”, even though the ban had been lifted. And they were remanded in judicial custody.

A senior officer of Kerala Police said: “The People’s March was proscribed in February 2008 after the Ernakulam District Collector banned it on January 15 on the ground that it indulged in publishing seditious matters, exhorting the public to take up arms for violent struggle and promoting divisive tendencies in the country.”

But a ruling of the PRAB on August 7 this year set aside the Collector’s order and held that “the magazine regains its force and becomes operative with immediate effect.”

The Board, comprising Chairman Justice K N Ray and member Ramesh Gupta, said as per Section 8(b) of the Press and Registration of Books Act, no publication could be banned on these grounds. The ruling stated: “Seditious offences may be taken cognizance of under the IPC or other relevant laws.”

Jacob Punnoose, Director General of Police, Kerala, said: “In December 2007, we arrested P Govindan Kutty, the editor, publisher and printer of the periodical.” Later, the state government decided to ban the publication after issuing an order. However, the PRAB has quashed the order. “But I cannot comment on why the ban was lifted by the PRAB,” h added.

Kutty, the 63-year-old editor, had appealed to the Board against the ban, and in August, after nine months, it allowed the publication to restart.

“The PRAB has allowed me to come out with the magazine once again, the first issue has been published in November,” Kutty said on phone from Ernakulam, Kerala. The issue has an interview of Central Committee member of the CPI(Maoists), Ganapathi as its lead article.

“The West Bengal Government has taken a step worse than the Kerala government,” he said. “I was arrested by the Kerala Police and subsequently my magazine was banned.” But Swapan Dasgupta was arrested for publishing a banned magazine at a time when the ban had already been lifted, Kutty said. Dasgupta was slapped with a case under UAPA. “But where does the case stand if the ban does not exist? I have decided to appeal to the court for the release of two innocent persons.

The DGP, Bhupindar Singh, said: “Dasgupta and Singha were arrested for publishing a banned magazine which is the mouthpiece of the Maoists. We are yet to receive any written order saying the ban has been lifted.

Ashok Bakshi, a senior Public Prosecutor of the state, however, said: “If the ban on the magazine does not exist then legally they should be released. But the case is pending in Sealdah court.”

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Upanshu Mahato,leader of Movement against pollution of Sponge Iron arrested in Jhargram and charged with sec 120 and 121 CrPC.

On 26 January 2010, police of West Midnapur arrested comrade Upansu Mahao. He was produced in court after 48 hours and charged with Sections 120 and 121 of CrPC.

Upansu Mahato is a member of Midnapur District Committee of CPI(ML) and was convenor of the Committee against pollution of sponge iron. There are three sponge iron plants near Lodhasuli on NH6 in Jhargram.

The pollution of these plants has destroyed the paddy fields, forests and water bodies in nearly 50 villages inhabited by the Adivasis and Mahatos. The people of the area have been agitating against this and demanding the closure of the plants. A case was filed in Calcutta High Court and the High Court ruled that the plants should be closed. But the state government refused to accept the ruling. The owner of all three plants is one Patwari who is a very powerful capitalist in the district and politicians and bureaucrats are ever ready to serve him.

Actually the combined forces of the central and state governments have let loose a reign on the people of the region in order to suppress all genuine mass-movements. The presence of the Maoists in the area has only given them an excuse to suppress the people( Democracy and Class Struggle does not agree with these comments about the Maoists by CPI ML but calls for release of Upanshu Mahato of CPI ML. We request friends and democrats all over the country to demand:

1. Close the Sponge Iron Factories2. Withdraw the Joint Forces3. Release Upansu Mahato and all other political prisoners.

"It is not the case today that the principal question of opposing fascism is to prepare to assume leadership of a United Front, it is a question of the Party.

The adherents of fascisation put off the appointed day with the excuse that it is necessary to win the masses over before building a Party. In fact it is necessary for links to be built with the masses in struggle led by the Party and to learn with them the fusion of theory and practice. They lament the absence of a Party but refuse to go to the masses under the Maoist banner contrary to those communists and Maoists who preceded us and who built the vanguard parties of their day".

We are unable to attend this important meeting but we support the general objectives you have set out.

It is vital that Maoist communists strive to develop their revolutionary parties in countries where they exist and to struggle to form MLM organisations and parties in countries where there are none, as in the case of Britain. The main aim of Revolutionary Praxis is to work towards forming a Maoist political organisation in Britain.

We do not consider that a revival of Marxism-Leninism- Maoism in Britain is likely to come from old elements left over from past decades. Rather we need to look towards younger people of radical and revolutionary inclinations in order to form a new revolutionary organisation. That is why we carry out agitation and propaganda work among students and other young people. Many young people in Europe today are drawn towards anarchism rather than Marxism and this is a trend against which there needs to be strong ideological struggle.

In Britain there is a strong economist current, propagated by revisionists and Trotskyists, which sees trade unions as proto-revolutionary organisations. While recognising the necessity for workers living under capitalism to engage in trade union struggle as a defensive tactic, Revolutionary Praxis denounces attempts to limit the class struggle in Britain to routine trade union activity. Also in general we oppose revolutionaries participating in the elections run by the capitalist state. Soon there will be a General Election in Britain and as in the past we will be campaigning on the streets for people not to vote as a protest against the fake "democracy" under which we live.

In Europe there is an emergent capitalist imperialist state: the European Union. Our enemy, the bourgeoisie, is becoming increasingly organised at a continental level and this necessitates stronger ties and greater co-operation among the MLM organisations and parties in Europe so that we can fight back against this transnational body which oppresses us all..

We have been and are engaged in solidarity work with the Maoist-led revolutionary struggles in Nepal and India, especially because there are still very strong links between these countries and British imperialism. Our general attitude towards the parties leading these struggles is that firstly we support them and only secondarily do we criticise them. Also we campaign against the vicious imperialist wars waged on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. This work is very important because pro-imperialist ideology is still strong among the working class and middle strata in Britain and needs to be vigorously combatted.

Related to the persistence of imperialist ideology in Britain is the persistence of racism and the growth of fascist organisations. Revolutionary Praxis participates in the struggle against this extreme reaction and especially against growing Islamophobia at the present time.

Solidarity work with revolutionary struggles in other countries is important but insufficient by itself. Most of the Maoists in Britain today are not prepared to go further and form a MLM political organisation in Britain. It must be recognised that effective, practical solidarity with anti-imperialist struggles abroad will be severely limited in the absence of an effective, Maoist revolutionary party in Britain.

We support the proposal to form and develop an international Red Relief. If they are not doing much else, some comrades in the imperialist countries can at least provide some material aid to comrades in more difficult circumstances.

We support the call for a new international conference with the aim of achieving greater unity among the MLM organisations and parties around the world. In particular we consider it important that there is principaled struggle to overcome the present division between those grouped in the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement and those in the International League for People's Struggle. There is a need for a new MLM international publication as a means of building and strengthening unity among Maoist communists at an international level. This could be website based and downloaded into printed format as appropriate in different situations.

We send you our revolutionary greetings and wish the conference every success in attaining the stated objectives.

This map uses the Gini index as a measure of inequality .The general pattern seems to be an equitable core comprised of Scandinavia, Germany, France, and Central Europe, with modestly greater inequality towards the Anglophone, Mediterranean, and Slavic peripheries. Turkey (which is mostly in Asia, after all) has the highest Gini score.

The Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion developed by the Italian statistician Corrado Gini and published in his 1912 paper "Variability and Mutability" (Italian: Variabilità e mutabilità). It is commonly used as a measure of inequality of income or wealth.

The gap between rich and poor in Britain has increased over the past four decades, and has kept on rising even in the past decade, according to a "sobering" report into equality published on Wednesday.

Tthe National Equality Panel's report states starkly that: "Britain is an unequal country, more so than many other industrialised countries and more so than it was a generation ago."

While the increase in inequality has slowed, the panel found that the richest 10 percent of households in the country, with an average household wealth of £853,000 including personal possessions and housing, are nearly 100 times better off than the poorest 10 percent of the population, who have at best a household wealth of £8,800. The gap between rich and poor is greater than for four decades.

The panel found that data confirms that "social background really matters" in the life chances of a child. The panel looked at inequality between men and women, between different ethnic groups, between social class groups, and between those living in disadvantaged and other areas. "There remain deep-seated and systematic differences in economic outcomes between social groups," the report said.

The report found that although earnings inequality between the genders had narrowed somewhat in recent years, weekly earnings of women in full-time employment were still 22 percent less than those of men.

As for pay discrepancies between ethnic groups, the panel added that when employed "nearly all other groups have hourly pay less than white British men, although several groups (including Black Caribbean women) have higher pay than white British women."

Historically, inequality rose sharpest in the 1980s and 1990s and this rise slowed but did not stop over the past decade

This documentary is about the movement of indigenous people of Lalgarh, to protest the continued police atrocities on them. The atrocities took a new dimension after a landmine attack on the convoy of Chief Minister of Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharya allegedly by the Maoists on November 2, 2008. The convoy was on their way back from laying the foundation stone of Jindal steel plant at Shalboni when it came under attack.

Unified CPN (Maoist) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda made a public invitation to UML vice-chairman Bam Dev Gautam to leave his party and join the Unified CPN (Maoist).

Inaugurating the first convention of the pro-Maoist National Civil Servants Federation in the capital Friday, in which Gautam was one of the invitees, Dahal said the Maoist party was ready to hail Gautam if he revolts from the UML.

The Maoist chairman also revealed that he and vice chairman Mohan Baidya had held several meetings with Gautam to discuss the possibility of unity between the leftist forces. Saying that Unity between communist parties can be reached only on ideological grounds, Dahal mentioned that his party would not go for unity with "defeatists and revisionists".

UML vice-chairman Bam Dev Gautam Gautam, who spoke earlier at the programme, did not say anything publicly on Dahal's call.

The UML vice chairman, who was Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister in the erstwhile Maoist-led government, is known for his soft stance towards the Maoists for which he has been criticised by a section of UML. He has publically challenged his party's decisions on numerous occasions including the UML's position on the President's move in the army chief episode.

Source: Nepal News but edited by Democracy and Class Struggle to reflect actual comments of Prachanda in video.

She was in town to release the English version of Kaifi Aur Main a biographical account of her father, Kaifi Azmi, by her mother, Shaukat Kaifi at the book fair on Thursday.

"It's time we celebrated the way peasants are resisting land acquisition by corporate giants, because this shows that the less privileged have geared up for a movement to protect their rights," she said.

Shabana's parents were an integral part of the communist movement in India before Independence and remained devoted communists till the end, despite extreme hardships, she said. When asked if India was ready for "revolution" that would usher in equality in the real sense of the term, she said, "One should take a cue from the peasants' united protests against land grab by corporate houses. I laud it as a movement."

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

A Maoist leader has claimed that party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal did not pledge support to Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala to replace the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led coalition under his leadership.

"In no way are we going propose Koirala for Prime Minister. There should be a national government led by us," Maoist politburo member Janardan Sharma said at an interaction programme in the capital Wednesday, dismissing media reports that party chairman Dahal offered the PM's post to the NC president during their meeting yesterday.

The news reports on Dahal's proposal, according to Sharma, were just part of a propaganda.

Speaking at the same programme, Nepali Congress leader and culture minister Minendra Rijal said the high-level political mechanism of the three parties was not formed for the purpose of forming new coalition and that he had no knowledge of Dahal's offer to Koirala

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

[Recently, Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress supremo, had offered to mediate negotiations between the agitating adivasis of Lalgarh and the government. In response, Chhatradhar Mahato, the imprisoned leader of People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), wrote an open letter from jail, which was published in the Bengali daily newspaper Pratidin. A translated version of the letter is published below.]

I saw in the newspapers that you have organised a press conference and declared: “who is Chhatradhar?”. Also, you have accused me of being corrupt. I don’t regret that you don’t know who Chhatradhar is, but you are certainly answerable for saying that I am corrupt. Prior to this, the DG of the state spread stories about my possessing crores of rupees and owning houses in different places and now have shut up. Now you too have said so. Fine. I now request you to tell the public what acts of corruption I have committed and where. I see that at the same time you have expressed a desire to unleash the armed forces. I don’t know whether you remember the bone-chilling screams of our mothers in Manipur: the Indian Army raping them. So, our mothers and sisters in Jangalmahal got extremely concerned with these talks about deploying the army. I fear that the bone-chilling screams of our mothers in Manipur might be echoed in Jangal Mahal, the breeze through the Shaal and Mahul forests will get poisoned. I pray that this wish of yours is never fulfilled.

In a mass meeting in Jhargram on January 15 you have extended an invitation for discussions and imposed a seven-day time limit on it. This proposal of yours is really great. Inspite of all the meetings and processions for 13 months, thousands of people of Jangalmahal have failed to push the administration to participate in talks. Rather, they were presented with threats from the administration and the terror of the joint forces colluding with the harmads. But your proposal remains somewhat vague, i.e., you have not clarified as to with which organisation you want to have this discussion. Because there are quite a few organisations here such as Jharkhand (Aditya) Jharkhand (Naren), CPI (Maoist), ourselves, the Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee and many more. In case you want to sit for talks with our organisation, the Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee, then I have a few things to say. First, before sitting for talks, it is very important to create an atmosphere (in Jangalmahal) for discussions. Currently the joint forces are creating havoc every day: looting, burning down things in villages, picking up people from their homes and murdering them. The villagers are leaving their homes and taking shelter in various camps. There is a horrible atmoshere of terror. The schools have been occupied and got turned into hell. Tell me, how can there be talks without removing these joint forces?

They have picked up innocent villagers from the villages of Jangalmahal and subjected them to merciless physical and mental torture and then imposed dozens of cases on them to put them in prisons. From young mothers with little babies to old mother figures, from students of class six to old men, these murderous forces are not sparing anybody. The imprisoned families are devastated. Already in a state of destitution, now they have to face this mental torture also. The imprisoned people and their families are quite at a loss. The barbaric CPI(M) have imposed the black law UAPA, a shame on democracy, on me and many persons of our organisation to wreak their political vengeance. In such a frightening situation how can we have talks unless everyone is freed? Talks can only be held if everyone is unconditionally freed.

You understand very well that the movement based on the 13 demands that started in November 2008 in Lalgarh against police atrocities has now spread beyong Lalgarh and Jangalmahal into the adjoining districts of Bankura and Purulia. In support of the demands, the entire population of Jangalmahal including the Advasis and Moolbasis have maintained their mental strength and are continuing their fight inspite of facing several kinds of repression continually. If you are not sympathetic towards our demands then tell me how can we have the discussions? Hence the demands have to be considerered with importance in the talks.

Listen, the Indian constitution has given every citizen the right to get organised. It has given the right to express their opinions. It is not that they have to organise only as per the wishes of the ruling class, is it? Our organisation is a totally independent one and we are undertaking programmes openly by democratic means. Indeed, people with very diverse opinions can join our movement. They come with their own individual identities. They have participated in the movement in support of the demands. Nobody has ever used their organisational banners in our movement. Hence, attachment to Maoists, attachment to Trinamool, attachment to CPI(M) are nothing other than fabricated labels or elements of pure fiction created by the administration and the political parties. And you are talking about killings? I am taking full responsibility in saying that the West Bengal government is entirely responsible for the condition in Jangalmahal today. Later, the Central government has joined them. If you had been sympathetic to our demands right at the beginning then this situtation would not have arisen. But the administration admitted their mistakes. Be it the British rulers, or the ruling classes after they left, i.e., the powerful political parties of independent India, all of them wanted to dominate us and keep us trampled under their feet. Even though we are the indigenous people of India we do not get enough to eat. Whenever we raised our voices about our culture, our education and our freedom we were only met with brutal repression of the state power. Currently, as we have raised our voice against the terror in Jangalmahal, once again the State and the Central government have colluded to unleash terrible repression upon us. But everybody acknowledges our deprivation and misery. In 2009, during the Lok Sabha elections, the officer of the Election Commission in charge of West Bengal have sat down for talks with us and a solution was found. How come there was no problem then? Tell me, why do we have this situation today?

Inspite of this brutal torture on us you have not said anything in our favour. Quite on the contrary, when joint forces and the harmads are still not successful in curbing our movement, then you are expressing your desire to deploy the army. You have said that you will lay railway lines in Jangalmahal. Great idea. It is just like Buddha shouting, haven’t we done anything in the last 32 years? We have built roads.. But no food is carried on those roads. Neither is kerosene. All these things stay in Medinipur town: to facilitate the luxurious lifestyle of the Harmad officers (or to make their palatial houses, something left unsaid). Now only the vehicles of the mechanised armed forces travel on those roads.. No other car is allowed to enter theses road. I hope that ultimately your railway lines won’t be used for bringing in the soldiers only? If this laying down of railway lines creates employment for the young men and women of Jangalmahal then I will remain eternally grateful to you.

(This letter arrived by fax. Some sections were hazy. Whatever could be retrieved is being published here. – Pratidin)

The Unified Communist Party of Nepal Maoist party has asked GMR-ITD Consortium, a branch of GMR Energy, to stop work on the project located in the area bordering Surkhet, Accham and Dailekh districts stating that it was not in Nepal’s favour.

In a press conference at Surkhet on Monday,politburo member Khadka Bahadur Biswakarma stated that the decision to halt work on the project was taken as per central policy of the party.UCPN (M) politburo member Khadka Bahadur

“Upper Karnali is an important property of Nepal. We intervened to close work on the project as only foreigners will benefit from it,” Biswakarma told media persons.

The project was handed over to the Indian firm in January 2008 and nearly 80 percent work on it is over. Once completed, Nepal will get 12 per cent of power generated by the project free of cost.

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) renders highest tribute to our young martyrs and heroes of the people: Tanya Domingo, Ian Dorado, Kemberly Jul Luna and Ian Maderazo. The NDFP conveys its deepest condolences to their families, their organizations, friends and classmates.

Tanya Domingo and Ian Dorado, Fine Arts students and cultural activists from the University of the Philippines were killed by soldiers of the fascist Arroyo regime on January 14 in Bulacan, Central Luzon. Ian Maderazo of the University of the Philippines – Los Banos, scholar and student leader, was slain on January 9 in Macalelon, Quezon in Southern Tagalog. Kemberly “Kimay” Jul Luna, student leader of Mindanao State University – Iligan Insitute of Technology was killed on December 15, 2009 in Valencia City, Bukidnon in Mindanao.

They integrated deeply with the oppressed and struggling masses, joined the revolutionary mass movement passionately crying out the demands of the masses, used their talents and energy to serve the people, and made the decision to become freedom fighters in the people's armed revolution.

In the long revolutionary tradition of the youth, from the time of Emilio Jacinto in the Katipunan, to the youth in the First Quarter Storm, our beloved young martyrs have blazed the path forward for the Filipino people's struggle for national and social liberation. Our young martyrs' deep commitment and fiery passion to fight for freedom and liberation inspires the youth and the entire people to raise the level of the revolutionary struggle ever higher.

We salute our young martyrs. We pay the highest honor to Tanya Domingo, Ian Dorado, Kimay Jul Luna and Ian Maderazo! Let their total commitment and service to the people and the revolution be a bright beacon of inspiration to the youth in the Philippines and all over the world!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Kishanji, leader of Maoists, has rejected the Trinamool Congress chief’s offer to facilitate peace talks with the Centre if they lay down arms, and said only unconditional talks are acceptable to them.

In an open letter to Mamata Benerjee, he listed a host of demands concerning development in tribal areas, special economic zones, violence perpetrated by political parties and corruption in disbursal of government funds.

At a rally in West Bengal’s Jhargram town on January 15, Ms. Banerjee urged the Maoists to shun violence to pave the way for dialogue within seven days.

Replying, Kishanji said: “The Communist Party of India (Maoist) will never consent to dialogue after laying down arms at the behest of the Centre or any State government or any political party. The Maoists do not trust the current parliamentary system and laying down arms is not on our agenda.”

Accusing the Trinamool of perpetrating violence like the CPI(M) throughout the State, he said the Maoists “do not commit even a minuscule proportion of that violence.”

Reacting to Ms. Banerjee’s announcement that she would hold processions in Maoist-affected areas if the ultras failed to meet the deadline, Mr. Kishanji said: “If she can come to Jangalmahal [forested southwestern parts of the State] without police cover, she is welcome.”

He criticised Ms. Banerjee for slamming the Maoists one day and trying to pacify them the next day. “The manner and language in which Mamata didi attacked us at a press conference make us doubt her call for peace.”

Fifth Norwegian Soldier Killed in Afghanistan – the Socialist Left PartyHas Blood on their Hands

The fifht Norwegian soldier has been killed in the predatory war inAfghanistan. Bring the troops home NOW!, Serve the People demands.

- The only way to guarantee that more Norwegian lives not will be lost inAfghanistan is to stop the Norwegian participation in the predatory war inAfghanistan, Henrik Ormåsen – spokesperson for Serve the People –Communist Leauge – states.

Serve the People condemn the government which is behind the Norwegianparticipation in the war and want the soldiers home immediately.

- The Norwegian government, where the «peace party» Socialist Left Partyparticipates, is responsible for the Norwegian war participation and thusalso has the responsibility every time a Norwegian soldier is injured orkilled, Ormåsen continues.

Taliban is no solution

- Taliban is no solution for the people in Afghanistan. Taliban stands foran ultrareactionary and oppressing politics against women, they want tobring Afghanistan back to the dark ages. We support the Afghan people'sright to throw out the occupiers. But it is obvious that the Afghan peoplewill gather around those who run the resistance against the occupiers. Ascommunists we cannot support the ultra-reactionary, women oppressing andislamist politics of the Taliban, but we support the Afgani people's rightto throw the occupiers out.

The US-imperialist occupation of Afghanistan has up to now cost more than500.000 people their lives. As long as the occupiers don't withdraw, thereis no reason to believe that ther will not be hundred thousands of victimswho will meet a too early death, Ormåsen ends.

We are happy to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the First Quarter Storm of 1970. This was the series of protest mass actions, which began on January 25, 1970 and continued up to March of 1970. It is chronicled by Jose F. Lacaba's Days of Disquiet and Nights of Rage and commented upon by Amado Guerrero's First Quarter Storm of 1970.

At the beginning, ten thousand students, urban poor youth, workers and peasants massed in front of Congress in order to express themselves against the anti-national and anti-democratic policies of the Marcos regime and against the excessive spending of public money to reelect Marcos as president.

Their peaceful demonstration was brutally attacked by the police with truncheon and gunfire upon the signal of Marcos himself after delivering his "state of the nation address". The demonstrators fought back for several hours with bare fists, wooden handles of placards and stones.

Undaunted by state brutality, the Kabataang Makabayan (Patriotic Youth) and other organizations of the youth and working people formed the Movement for a Democratic Philippines (MDP). They conducted build up rallies in communities, schools and factories and then launched people's marches from different points of Metro Manila in order to converge on the focal points of reactionary power.

Tens of thousands of people joined and converged on the presidential palace on January 30, 1970. Some of the demonstrators seized a firetruck and rammed it through the gates of the palace and others made bonfires with their torches. Marcos became even more angered and openly threatened the declaration of martial in order to discourage further mass protests. But the proletarian revolutionaries and revolutionary core of the MDP stood fast on continuing the protest actions.

From week to week, the level of propaganda and agitation, organizational work and mass mobilization rose. Fifty thousand to 100,000 joined each of the marches and rallies, while other people lined the streets to cheer the marchers and give them food and water. The columns of marchers converged on plazas near the presidential palace or the US embassy.

The First Quarter Storm of 1970 caught the attention of the people on a national and international scale. It inspired the youth and working people in the provincial capitals and cities to rise up and carry out protest actions against US imperialism and the local reactionaries and demand national liberation and democracy.

The First Quarter Storm of 1970 was the highest point of the legal democratic mass movement for national liberation and democracy before the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in 1971 and the declaration of martial law in 1972. It put forward the patriotic and progressive demands of the people against US imperialism and the local exploiting classes.

It resounded with the fighting slogans, "Makibaka, Huwag Matakot! Digmang bayan ang sagot sa martial law! (Fight, Don't Be Afraid! People's war is the answer to martial law!)". It raised the fighting spirit of the broad masses of the people against the US-directed Marcos regime and against the repeated threats of the regime to declare martial law. It pushed the organized forces of the national democratic movement to accelerate their political and organizational work among the people.

The First Quarter Storm of 1970 was an unprecedented peak in the advance of the cultural revolution of the new democratic type, which called for a national, scientific and mass culture with the framework of the people's democratic revolution led by the working class. It was the product of a decade-long ideological and political work among the students and other youth and among the working people by the young proletarian revolutionaries.

It further generated and reinvigorated a new wave of study and mass work among the youth along the line of new democratic revolution. Schools for national democracy were organized and conducted at all offices of Kabataang Makabayan, on campuses, in the vicinity of factories, in communities and in all types of public places. Cultural works were created and presented to the youth and people in order to raise higher the level of their revolutionary consciousness and militance.

The First Quarter Storm of 1970 resulted in the political education of great numbers of people and their recruitment into the Kabataang Makabayan and other types of mass organizations. On the basis of the rapidly growing mass movement, hundreds and then thousands of mass activists were educated and recruited to become members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Consequent to the First Quarter Storm of 1970, the Kabataang Makabayan became a stronger engine for developing mass activists among the students and intelligentsia and among the young workers and peasants on a nationwide scale, for building revolutionary trade unions and for sending the educated youth and workers to the countryside for service in the New People's Army and in the rural communities.

The First Quarter Storm of 1970 was the key to the accelerated growth of legal mass organizations and such revolutionary forces as the CPP, NPA and the main components of what would become the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). When the Marcos regime imposed martial law and fascist dictatorship on the country, the revolutionary forces and people were more determined than ever to wage protracted people's war along the national democratic line.

We should never forget the First Quarter Storm of 1970 as a major node in the development of the new democratic revolution in the Philippines. The achievements of the Philippine revolution since 1970 would not have been possible without this storm. We owe to it the emergence and development of so many cadres and mass activists and the growth of the revolutionary forces on a nationwide scale.

We must celebrate the great significance and continuing relevance of this historic event. We must renew our resolve to carry forward the Filipino people's democratic revolution against US imperialism and the local exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords.

We must undertake certain activities to raise the level of revolutionary consciousness and fighting capabilities in the next three months and further on.

We must step up the study movement and cultural work along the line of the new democratic revolution. We must enlighten and arouse the people by using all means of information, education and artistic expression. We must recruit more people into the patriotic and progressive mass organizations, especially those of the workers, peasants, women and youth. We must mobilize a far greater number of people to engage in various forms of struggle against the US-Arroyo regime and the entire semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system.

We face today the worst crisis of the world capitalist system since the 1930s because of the US-instigated policies of "neoliberal" globalization and imperialist aggression and terrorism. The broad masses of the people suffer conditions of exploitation and oppression far worse than four decades ago. These intolerable conditions drive the people and the revolutionary forces to fight more resolutely and militantly for their national and democratic rights and interests.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

HYDERABAD: The Communist Party of India (Maoist) called for a 72-hour bandh in the Central region of India from January 25 to 27 protesting against the murderous operation Green Hunt unleashed on the Adivasis.

In a press release here today, CPI(Maoist) central regional bureau spokesperson Pratap and Central Committee spokesperson Azad, called upon the people of Chhattisgarh, North Telangana, Andhra-Orissa Border region and Gadchiroli and Chandrapur districts of Maharashtra to observe 72-hour bandh.

They appealed to the people to build a mighty militant mass movement to force the reactionary rulers to stop the bloodbath in the adivasi areas.

``We call upon the entire rank and file of the party, the brave PLGA fighters and the revolutionary masses to valiantly fight back the brutal offensive unleashed by the rulers,’’ Pratap and Azad said.

“It is clear that the agents of the imperialists and the business houses ruling our country are preparing to evacuate the adivasis from the entire forest belt and hand over the mineral-rich territory to their masters in exchange for fat commissions.

While they had never bothered to provided even drinking water to the adivasis during the past 62 years they are spending thousands of crores for setting up airbases and for developing infrastructure. The Government wants to drive out the adivasis permanently from their native villages and handover the entire forest to the corporate bosses and imperialist vulture,’’ the CPI (Maoist) said in the release.

Kathmandu: Maoist leader Prachanda, who has recently been engaged in a bitter attack on India, has said he wants a "new level of understanding" to be developed with the "big neighbour" with which Nepal enjoys "distinct" ties, unlike China.

The chairman of Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) emphasised that India and China cannot have an equal role in the affairs of Nepal as India's ties with Nepal have a "specific" character "dictated" by aspects like open border andhistorical, geographical and cultural linkages.

"We are never ignoring our distinct historical, geographical and cultural relationship with India. We cannot ignore it. Only we can develop a new level of understanding to strengthen our relations," the 56-year-old former prime minister told PTI in an interview here.

He said the new understanding with India needed to be developed on the basis of "changed scenario" in Nepal and after addressing all outstanding issues, like revision of the 1950 Friendship Treaty and resolving Kalapani and Susta border disputes.

Insisting that the impression about his being anti-India is wrong, Prachanda said, "The fact is that we want to develop a new basis and new level of understanding (with India) to strengthen the relationship and to have economic development in this country."

Prachanda, who led a decade-long armed struggle against the monarchy before joining the mainstream in 2005, regretted that his demands for revising the Friendship Treaty and solving other issues were being misconstrued as an attempt to create some difficulties.

"We are not against good relations with India," he said.

"But to have good relations, we should focus on some issues of history, we should have to address old treaties, the (1950 Friendship) Treaty of (former King) Rana regime, solve border issues Susta and Kalapani," he said, adding he wanted these issues, as also the trade imbalance, to be addressed once and for all.

Prachanda, whose original name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal, has recently been engaged in a vitriolic attack on India, alleging that it has been interfering in Nepal's affairs and "dictating" to its leadership. This prompted a sharp reaction from New Delhi.

"If we are able to convey our concerns to Indian leadership, it will be very easy to develop newer basis, to have a good relations with India," he contended.

Prachanda, who is seen as pro-China, observed that both India and China have fast growing economies and "We want to benefit from our big neighbours."

Asked whether India and China had the equal role in Nepal, Prachanda said, "There is no comparison... We cannot compare. There is no confusion in our mind."

Maintaining that he favoured "good neighbourly relations with these big neighbours", he said, "obviously there is a major role for India because of open border, history, culture, geography. All these things dictate the policy.""We have distinct relations with India, specific feature of relationship with India, dictated by history, geography, culture," Prachanda said.

To reinforce the special character of Indo-Nepal relations, he noted that his two daughters are married in India, making it a "roti, beti ka samband (a relationship of bread and daughter)."

When pointed out that he is seen to have pro-China tilt, the Maoist leader said, "This is baseless. People have some sort of prejudice and some sorts of illusion."

"We want to build good neighbourly relations with both the countries. But there is no comparison. India is India, China is China. We don't want to be pro-China or pro-India. We will be pro-Nepalese."

Asked what then explains his six visits to China over the last two years, he sought to underline that he had travelled to India and stayed there much more regularly, even dating back to his underground days in 1990s.

"I visited India hundreds and hundreds of time, even during war. Even after becoming PM, I visited India three times," he said.

He said he wanted Nepal to benefit from India's economic growth which would be good for India itself.

"If Nepal remains poor and unstable, it will have impact mainly on India. It will have impact also on China but because of historical, geographical and cultural and economic relations, there will be serious impact between Nepal and India," he said.

The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has called off the indefinite general strike scheduled for Sunday.

Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as "Prachanda", issued a statement calling off the strike after Friday's meeting of the High-Level Political Mechanism (HLPM).

The HLPM, formed on January 8, is led by Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala and includes Unified CPN (Maoist) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN (UML) chairman Jhala Nath Khanal.

The HLPM, which holds its meeting at least once a week, aims to help take the peace process to a logical end, write a constitution on time, end the current political deadlock, remove the state of mistrust among parties by reviewing the status of implementation of all past agreements and end other political woes.

"Since the HLPM initiated discussion on our concerns and decided to give top priority to resolving the political deadlock, we decided to call off the strike for the time being, hoping for a positive outcome from the mechanism," Prachanda said in the statement.

However, Prachanda stated that the ongoing nationwide campaign for national independence and civil supremacy being conducted by his party would continue.

He also warned that the UCPN (Maoist) would be compelled to resume the stalled general strike from a new height if consensus is not forged to end the existing political deadlock.

As in Pistoia the trial battle begins for anti-fascists attacked by repression, in Rome the Supreme Court sided with those who want to outlaw Communists!Let’s fight against the establishment of new Specials Courts!

Let’s nip in the bud the tests of fascism!

Yesterday there were two important legal deadlines for the fight in defense of political rights conquered by the Partisan Resistance against outlawing Communists and against the establishment of special courts the reactionary right wants.

• Rome: Supreme Court about the Eighth Judicial Proceedings against the “caravan” of (n) PCI

• Pistoia: first day of the trial against the anti-fascists

Supreme Court about the Eighth Judicial Proceedings against the “caravan” of (n) PCI

The Supreme Court upheld the appeal brought by “new Torquemada” Paolo Giovagnoli, now chief prosecutor in Rimini, and Marcello Branca, Attorney General Lawyer of the Republic at Attorney of Bologna, against non suit sentence “as the crime does not exist”, issued on 1 July 2008 by the Judge for Preliminary Hearing Rita Zaccariello about the Eighth Judicial Procedure for “subversive association” (Paragraph 270a) carried out against 12 comrades of the (new) Italian Communist Party, of the CARC Party and of the ASP.

In other words, the Supreme Court tore up Rita Zaccariello’s sentence and ordered a new preliminary hearing to decide whether or not to make the trial against 12 accused comrades. Therefore, with this decision, the Supreme Court allows the resumption of the Eighth Judicial Proceedings against the “caravan” of (n) PCI, that the “big powers” planned and the zealous Giovagnoli assembled and led, with the support of secret services and center-right and center-left governments, with the aim to outlaw this political area by using the instrumental charge of “terrorism.”

With yesterday’s decision the Supreme Court takes sides clearly with the project by of reactionary and subversive right-wing:

- to proceed with more determination in wiping out what remains of the political rights conquered by the Partisan Resistance,

- to proceed in outlawing Communists and those who are fighting for socialist revolution, extending the repression against Communists and political opponents!

- to establish new special courts for the Communists and other opponents of Papal Republic.

The general prosecutor, Giovanni Salvi (brother of the exponent of Socialism 2000, member of the Federation of the Left, Cesare Salvi) harangued for the annulment of non suit sentence, easily violating the criteria that govern the functioning of the Supreme Court. Instead of following what the justice of our country dictates and then analyzing only the technical aspect of Zaccariello’s work and decision (that is whether or not there were errors or irregularities in conducting the preliminary hearing and in structuring the sentence), he went into content of the sentence.

Judge Giovanni Salvi has in fact traced the events at the center of an investigation conducted by the “new Torquemada” and concluded essentially that Zaccariello has misinterpreted the count of indictment of “subversive association” (paragraph 270 bis). According to him, the presence of an organized structure aimed to transform the existing social order establishing socialism is enough to set the crime of subversive association. His “large” interpretation of paragraph 270 bis, count of indictment inherited by the fascist Rocco Code, is in line with that of the special courts of the fascist regime that used it to incarcerate thousands of Communists, political opponents and anti-fascists, including Antonio Gramsci.

We must remember that in the past Giovanni Salvi already dealt with the “caravan” of (n) PCI. In fact he was one of the holders of the investigation for “subversive association” opened against the “caravan” by the prosecutor of Rome in 1999 and closed on 4.09.2001. He was as well among the holders of following investigation, opened immediately after the closure of the former one, always by Rome Attorney, always for “subversive association”, always against the “caravan” and always ended with closure in 2003, the year in which Giovagnoli in his turn opened this Eighth Judicial Proceeding!

Defending counsels asked Salvi why he before closed even two investigations and now supports the accusations of Giovagnoli, who opened an investigation immediately after the end of the two conducted by the Public Prosecutor of Rome. Salvi was cornered by this clear contradiction that showed persecutory and political purpose of the request for revocation of non suit. He tried to get free claiming that he asked closure in 2001 and not in 2003, as though contradicted by court records.

The State lawyer as well did not lack resourcefulness and creativity. He flung himself in fanciful inventions, without any correspondence with the documentation of the procedure.While in court the rules governing Supreme Court’s functions and duties and the political rights conquered by the partisan resistance were violated, and the general prosecutor and the State lawyer did not hesitate to use even lies and misinformation, in St. Marco square, the CARC Party, the Proletarian Solidarity Association, the Struggling Workers Union for the Class Trade Union, some comrades of RASH (Red Anarchist Skin Heads), of University Resistance and of OCI (International Communist Organization) held a rally against the persecution of the Communists and in solidarity with Tuscan anti-fascists attacked by repression.

They also denounced the repressive attack carried out against comrades Virgilio and Morlacchi, arrested in recent days in Milan for a warrant by Rome prosecutor, who is carrying out the so-called investigation against the new Red Brigades. Also these timer arrests, accompanied by bombastic statements by Minister Maroni and by an intoxicating media campaign, testify the climate the reactionary right is trying to create in our country. The persecution of Communists and anti-fascists, the more and more clear violations of the Constitution and of the laws that to some extent protect masses’ interests, the accusations and police charges against workers, students, environmentalists, the “security package” of laws and the hunt for immigrants and Centers where they are shut in, the raids in Rom camps, the forced evictions of social centers, the militarization of entire cities and regions, the extent of control measures and enforcement, go hand in hand with the proliferation of tests of fascism. Casa Pound, Forza Nuova, Fiamma Tricolore, la Destra, the racist green shirts of Borghezio, and so on: the most reactionary part of the ruling class, properly represented by the band of criminals, fascist and clerical gathered around Berlusconi, is testing each one of these fascist and racist groups and movements to see which one could be able to lead the reactionary mobilization of the masses.

To repress opponents, to mobilize the most backward and brutish part of the masses against the other part, to drag all them in the aggression and looting of other countries is the way by which the ruling class tries to “get out of the crisis” keeping standing its system of social relations, its power and its privileges. The revolt of the immigrants in Rosarno uncovered which future this scum is preparing for us: savage exploitation, removal of most elementary rights, degrading living conditions, misery and brutishness. It showed which means it uses for doing it: the fascist squads in hand with organized crime and law enforcement.

Pistoia: first hearing of the trial against the anti-fascists

In Pistoia yesterday it began the trial against 6 Tuscan antifascists, Juri Bartolozzi, Alessandro Della Malva (CARC Party members), Vittorio Colombo, Selvaggio Casella, Alessandro Cipolli e Elisabetta Orfani , accused of “devastation, looting and injuries” “due to damaging Casa Pound seat on 11 October in Pistoia. These comrades are all under house detention, except Alessandro Della Malva, imprisoned in Parma, where he was moved to try to undermine its morale and its strength after a period of detention in prisons of Pistoia and Prato. In Parma, the comrade is subjected to censorship of incoming and outgoing mails, by order of the judge of preliminary investigations. This process is a clear legal frame based on false and opportunistic testimonies by members of Pistoia right wing.

Outside the courtroom there was a fighting rally for denouncing, for struggle and solidarity promoted by the Committee of Relatives and Friends of Alessandro della Malva, by the CARC Party, by ASP, by Pistoia Anti-Fascist and SLL. Throughout the morning there were launched slogan, made speeches, sung songs of the communist movement, spread anti-fascist leaflets, issued press statements to denounce the repressive nature of the trial aimed to contrast the development of Tuscan anti-fascist movement roots and leave free hand for fascists and racists taking roots in popular neighborhoods. The masses of Pistoia were called to solidarity with antifascists and to fight against fascists and racists. The comrades under inquiry could feel the warmth and support by the anti-fascist movement.

Inside the Court, in a room full of comrades, relatives and anti-fascists, a technical hearing was held to begin the trial, which was set for 27 and 29 January. The lawyers submitted a list of witnesses they deem appropriate to convene and illustrated the contradictions present in the court, starting from what the so-called “witnesses” referred. The lawyer Leone also highlighted the violation of political rights ongoing in this proceeding and requested the release for Alessandro Della Malva. Judge Luciano Costantini will decide in coming days.

Comrade Alessandro Della Malva, in his turn, asked the judge to make a statement. After some initial resistance, the judge leave him to speak, and he told he has nothing to do with the facts, he claimed his political activity within the CARC Party, denounced the political and repressive nature of ongoing proceeding, stated that it was necessary to nip in the bud the tests of fascism, to contrast the attempts by fascists and racists to take root in popular neighborhoods and to close their dens when the Authorities (violating the laws of the Italian State itself) do not directly intervene. Moreover, he denounced the regime of isolation and censorship to which he is subjected in prison in Parma. The intervention was applauded by comrades present in the courtroom.

After the hearing, Alessandro has been taken in prison again: a spontaneous march singing Bandiera Rossa followed the jail van going through the weekly market.

We launch a call to all anti-fascists, communists, sincere democrats to take a public stand against these attacks to the political rights and to promote initiatives for denounce and solidarity!

No to outlawing Communism and anti-fascism!

Freedom for the comrades attacked by the repression!

Let everybody come in Pistoia on 27 and 29 January!

Let everybody come in Massa on 26 January to the trial against the Anti-Racist Anti-Fascist People’s Patrols that this summer go to contrast the Nazi-fascist patrols!

Kishenji, a leader of Communist Party of India-Maoist escaped arrest during a joint operation by the police and central paramilitary forces. They searched a jungle in West Midnapore district in eastern West Bengal state on Wednesday.

Acting on a tip off, the joint forces launched a search. However, before they could reach the Maoist camp, Kishenji and other close aids managed to flee.

Police seized some arms and ammunitions, as well as a laptop believed to be used by Kishenji.

Police did arrest three people including two women, whom they suspect are a part of the guerrilla force.

Three persons were arrested. One is Sitaram Hansda,Kanika Adak and Sefali Bera. They are interrogating them. We are still verifying the backgrounds of these persons.

Maoists wage People's War across eastern, central and southern parts of the country, an insurgency that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described as one of the gravest threats to the country's internal security.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

It is often observed that not only children but even adults are taught that this world is simple, straightforward and sunny. However, often it is complex, topsy-turvy and murky. The first tendency makes one project positivity and the second negativity on the world. The truth is that both exist side by side. It is by fighting against the negative tendencies that one moves ahead and gains positive results. In short, contradiction is behind all the movements, thus making it the salt of dialectics.

In Nepali politics, there seem to be wrangling between new and old systems, between visionary leaders and power hungry leaders. Those who are fighting for new system are struggling to gain power, maturity and credibility at both national and international level. And those who want to stick to old system are similarly trying hard to retain power, credibility, and reliability at both national and international level. Similarly, those leaders who have power do not seem to have vision. They are using power as an end. And those leaders who have the vision do not have power to translate their vision into action. This is seen in almost all the political parties in Nepal.

At the world level, this tendency persists in different ways. Generally the developed countries are seen to be so consumer-oriented that they seem to lose political vision. The leaders from developed countries tend to find technical solutions to political problems in the Third World countries by bombing here and there and by erecting military bases. In the process, they are alienating themselves more and more from the Third World countries.

And the Third World countries are much too laden with politics because they lack power and they lack stable system to translate their vision into practice. They sound more and more strident against the First World for not giving them the freedom to solve their own problems with the consequence that they are distancing themselves from the developed countries.

At the micro level, it is important to understand the psychology of poor people. They have to face adversities at every step, hence are rebellious, militant and ruthless by nature. Their natural tendency is to be ultra leftist. The rich people, because of their abundance of comforts which are inversely proportional to the work they perform, are reluctant to change. Their natural tendency is ultra-rightist. In the end, too many changes too soon is as bad as too much stability for too long. Between the dialectics of change and stability, it is the change which should lead the period of stability, preparing the base for higher level of changes.

It is also important to know the dialectics between whole and part, particularly when Nepal is going to transform into a federal state from a unitary state. The whole should lead the parts. It is important that those fighting for autonomous regions on the ground of nationality keep the unity of the whole country in perspective while carving out their autonomous regions. It is equally important that the central government respect the aspirations of people of all nationalities for autonomous states. However, what is even more important is that the centre, at least in the beginning, be strong enough to be able to keep together all the autonomous states democratically.

There is also contradiction between big and powerful countries and small and powerless countries. Small and powerless countries always feel dwarfed by the big and powerful countries. The big and the powerful countries tend to assume they have answers to all the problems of small and powerless countries. It is important to note that in the globalised world, all countries are becoming more and more interdependent, both in positive and negative aspects, irrespective of their sizes and international clout.

At this juncture, it might be worthwhile to understand the dynamics of Indian politics as it has overwhelming effect in Nepal.

India is full of contradictions; along with countless challenges it has many opportunities as well which enables it to lead the region. It has all the geographical features: hills, mountains, Himalayas, flat plain, seas, rivers, desert, which present myriad possibilities and as many challenges. Politically, it has all sorts of movements: The Dalit movement spearheaded by Mayawati, the regional movement in the North East, the separatist movement in Kashmir, the religious Hindu movement spearheaded by Bharatiya Janta Party, the revolutionary class movement led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist), the reformist communist movement under Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the comprador bourgeois movement of Indian Congress Party.

Alongside these big-scale political movements, there are innumerable smaller movements led by environmentalists, women activists, green peace activists, social activists, educationists, scientists, anarchists, etc often complimenting and contradicting the mainstream movements.

There is also contradiction between the centre and federal states and among federal states when it comes to power sharing. There are newly assertive nationalities fighting for statehood. In the economic field, India has remnants of tribal economy, feudal economy, capitalist economy to the monopoly capitalist economy within various states. There is a big gap between haves and haves-not. In the cultural realm, you have various forms of matriarchal and patriarchal systems. It has almost all the religions present in the world. Linguistically, the whole country is divided into Hindi speaking North and non-Hindi speaking South. Even the countries surrounding it have different political systems.

In the North, it has tightly guarded border with unitary communist state of China. It has open border with Nepali state which is a nascent republic and monarchical Bhutan. In the West, it has the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, almost in a state of war. In the East it has Bangladesh, another Islamic state and Burma, a military state. And in the South it has the president-ruled Sri Lanka which has recently emerged from a civil war.

India is competing with China for global economic supremacy, but at the same time it is also facing all-encompassing movement of CPI (Maoist) which is gradually spreading all over India.

You need a bit of everything in politics, but ultimately it is the scientific vision and ideology which should lead all these tendencies. India has bits of everything; the challenge is to lead it, both nationally and in the international arena, with scientific vision. Nepal-India ties must also be seen in the context of the regional dialectics. There are bound to be ebbs and flows in the relationship. The two countries, being part of this globalised world, must learn to co-exit with each other meaningfully.

Haiti was the scene of the only successful slave revolution in history when the heroic descendants of African slaves drove out the strongest army in the world at that time, the French.

The French government forced Haiti to pay reparations of millions of dollars for daring to rebel.

FRANCE AND THE UNITED STATES WANTED AN EXAMPLE MADE OF THIS AFRIKAN NATION TO SHOW WHAT WOULD LIE IN STORE FOR ANY OTHER REBELLIOUS AFRIKAN NATION

Tthe U.S., also at that time feared the influence of Haiti on the slaves in the USA, and with France embarked on a policy of isolating and impoverishing Haiti.

This established, Haiti’s destructive patterns of political violence and economic chaos continuing from then up to the present time.

Between 1915 and 1934 U.S. marines occupied Haiti, suppressing a liberation struggle and implanting puppets. The U.S. backed the infamously cruel tyrant Papa Doc Duvalier, and then his son Baby Doc in the middle of the century..

The US and French governments conspired to overthrow the popular president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the 1990's and then again just a few years ago in 2004.

In Haiti's hour of need the past must be remembered and the people of Haiti freed from the destructive power of Imperialism in the 21st Century.

Statement of the George Jackson Socialist League and Democracy and Class Struggle

The criminal attack against migrant workers in Rosarno, in Italian region Calabria, has been known all over Europe.

It demonstrates what our Party is saying for months, that Italy is a fore front of racist and fascist war the European bourgeoisie is carrying out against migrants. The Italian State make people drowned in the Mediterranean sea, had made their boats sink, is organizing and supporting economically and politically in many Italian cities fascist and racist groups who have representatives in the bourgeois institutions and who did attacks against migrants, so as against gay people, workers, leftist young people and communists’ seats and so on, and acts together with the criminal organizations as it does in Rosarno. They are the criminal organizations that killed six African people in Castel Volturno in Campania in September 2009, by gangsters with carabinieri’s uniforms .

So as Italy is a forefront of this bourgeoisie’s war, it is a forefront of the resistance by the people’s masses and by the communists.

On January 2009, in Rome, tens thousands of migrant people marched in a demonstration of more than a hundred thousand people in support of Gaza Palestinians attacked by Zionists, one of the many demonstrations that leftist, anti-imperialist, antifascist and antiracist forces and the people’s masses by themselves are been able to organize in the latest years independently from revisionists forces.

On July 2009, an antifascist and antiracist squad started from the National Feast of the Association for Proletarian Solidarity for demonstrating against a fascist and racist “patrol” in Massa (Tuscany), and against the fascist and racist “security package”, the laws promulgated by the Berlusconi’s gang against migrants. The comrades were attacked by the police and by the fascists, three of them arrested, among them Alessandro della Malva, secretary of the CARC Party Tuscan Federation, member of the National Direction of CARC. The arrested were liberated after a hard struggle by people supporting them, demonstrating in front of the police stations, blocking the railway stations at Massa and in Naples. The minister Maroni, member of the racist Lega Nord, was compelled to modify the racist measures aimed to organize anti-migrant patrols.

On 11 October 2009 in Pistoia (Tuscany), 20 people who were having a meeting for organizing antifascist and antiracist activities in Tuscany were seized by the police and held in the police station all night long, with the false charge to have participated in an antifascist raid against a fascist seat near there. Three of them were arrested, and one of them, Alessandro della Malva, kept in jail where he is still today, with no right ever to communicate by mail with people outside and mainly with his Party, in rigorous imprisonment. Many demonstrations and initiatives of solidarity for him have been carried out, involving hundreds and thousands of people, relatives, friends, comrades, remembering us the images we got of the solidarity for the political prisoners we see, for example, in Turkey.

On 16 October, another great demonstration against racism and fascism, with ten thousands of people, was held in Rome, this one too self organized by leftist, anti-imperialist, antifascist and antiracist forces.

We ask the international antiracist, antifascist and communist movement to pay attention to what the imperialist bourgeoisie is testing in Italy, that is how to promote the reactionary mobilization of the popular masses. We also ask to the movement to support strongly the resistance the popular masses, the antiracist, antifascist and communist forces are carrying out against these that we call “fascism testing” by the bourgeoisie.

The comrades of ATIK (Confederation of Workers from Turkey in Europe) have made a statement about Rosarno facts.

Their statement is important. It answers to the call we sent already in the summer, asking the antiracist, antifascist and communist movement, and mainly the European one, to take care how what was happening in Italy, both about bourgeoisie’s war against migrants and about the struggle against this war, that is a kind of war itself, part of the protracted revolutionary people’s war applied according to the particular laws to be applied in the imperialist countries.

We have some remarks to make about the statement. Below we reproduce the document and indicate the remarks. Our comments are in italic.

2. ATIK statement

The hysteric aggression against migrants in Italy-Rosarno is‘modern slavery racism’!

The aggression against migrants in Rosarno is not “hysteric”. It is a planned operation, organized by the local criminal organizations connected with the State forces of repression, a part of a national strategy carried out by the extreme right of the imperialist bourgeoisie, of whom Berlusconi’s gang is representative. The tactic to make acting before the illegal forces (fascist or criminal gangs) and then the legal ones (the carabinieri, the police) as a rearguard is the old one tested firstly by Italian Fascism in the Twenties of the past century.

Rosarno fact are not “modern slavery racism”. The migrants are not slaves. They are integral and important part of the Italian working class. Some of them were workers of Northern Italy factories fired because of the crisis. All of them were workers of the agricultural sector in Southern Italy.

Workers may be treated worse than slaves, but anyway they are not property of somebody, they are free men and women, even if this means that they are free to die because they lack means of subsistence. Workers are a higher kind of laborers than slaves, and this is not a matter of words, but of what political action we are going to carry out with them and for them.

In South Italy, in the Calabria region in Rosarno, new attacks occurred against semi-legal or illegal migrants that are brought into the region for seasonal agricultural work.

The original source of the conflicts in the town has been the violent measurements against the migrant worker’s legitimate mass action by the Rosarno police and carabinieri teams, after the racist-fascist-mafia circles had injured two migrants with firearms. Migrants are moving to protest against the inhumane treatments, humiliations, discrimination and racist aggression of the past months in Rosario. With their legitimate upraising, they have presented a new example of the tradition of civil courage.

It is said that hundreds of migrants were injured during the joint attacks by the mafia circles and the police. The international ruling media is reflecting the issues distorted and is instigating racism by doing so. Migrants have been complaining in the past periods that ‘protection fees’ have been forced upon them by the notorious mafia organization of the Calabria region ‘ Ndrangheta’ resulting in a second exploitation. After these events hundreds of migrants were made subject to sudden and forced deportation without any legality to base this on, they were placed into homes in Bari and Brindisi that not even had a hygienic infrastructure. Thousands of migrants and refugees whom lives are at risk have the intention to flee the region with their own recourses.

The Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni is supporting the hysterical aggressive attacks of the mafia- police collective against illegal migrants, by stating ‘The incidents in Rosarno have shown the necessity for harder method in the struggle against illegal migration and migrant criminality’.

Against this, the progressive, democratic Italian public opinion and the left opposition have expressed a correct political analysis by stating that ‘the essential problem is not the migrants (legal or illegal) but the exploitive, mafia, racist and fascist-minded power struggle’.

Ten thousands of migrant workers are being put to work as slaves in the Calabria region, in Rosano, on the fruit fields, working under bad, unhealthy and precarious conditions. Even the refugee board of the UN, the UNCHR and the Italian unions has been criticizing these inhumane conditions for many years.

Since the period of Mussolini, Calabria is known as a province where racist, fascist-minded and the mafia are very strong, is actually economically an agricultural and domestic tourism region. The demand for maximum profit and superiority on competition through the exploitation of cheap, non-skilled, precarious migrant labour is the common goal of the small businesses, large farmers and the capitalists.

To say that “Since the period of Mussolini, Calabria is known as a province where racist, fascist-minded and the mafia are very strong” is a cliché, and moreover a cliché used by the racists themselves. We need to be dialectical. Calabria has been the region of many important peasants struggles after the Second World War, occupation of lands, tens of people killed. It has been a region with an important communist tradition. It has been a region with one of the most important workers struggles in the Nineties, the one of Enichem workers of Crotone. Going back in the past, before the period of Mussolini, this was the region of the hardest people’s war by the so called “brigands” against the occupation by the Italian State. Going further back, it was one of the lands with utmost resistance against the Vatican, in the sixteenth century, in a struggle that would have determined the future of our peninsula for the next centuries until today. Thousands of Calabrian Waldensians were killed by the papal forces. Tommaso Campanella, jailed for thirty years, one of the most important revolutionary thinkers of the century, was Calabrian. Gioacchino da Fiore, one of the most important inspirers of the revolutionary heretical movements of whole Europe in the first centuries of the past millennium, was Calabrian. More than 2500 years ago Pythagoras, well known as one of the greatest philosophers and mathematicians in all history, came in Calabria, in Crotone, were he wanted to establish an aristocratic government, but democrats rebelled, and killed him and his followers.

The Calabrian people’s masses are among the most oppressed masses in Italy, obliged to migrate themselves in many parts of Italy and all over the world. They are the first victims of the Mafia system. Their resistance must be known and supported. The Communists must be able to unite the resistance of the migrant people and that of Calabrian people. If they are not be able to do so, it is a problem of them. The reason why the reactionary powers are strong in Calabria is the fact that Communists are weak, it is a problem of the Italian Communist Movement, from the period of Mussolini until today

The entire Italian ruling class is profiting from this nationwide fascist-minded relentless exploitation. Berlusconi, who heads up the most racist power in Europe, is named the ‘representative of modern fascism of our times’ by many of the Italian leftists and progressive public opinion because of the oppressive implementations on all workers and migrants.

Those who talk about “modern fascism” in Italy are wrong. In Italy there is not fascism like the one we had from 1922 to 1945. If it were so, all people who call themselves “communists” would be in jail, or killed. There will be no freedom of strike, we should have an open terroristic regime, mass extermination, and so on. No doubt that Berlusconi and its gang are trying to establish something like this, but they have not yet succeeded in doing it. In Italy, so as in the other imperialist countries, we have a regime of counter preventive revolution, aimedto maintain people’s masses’ cultural and political backwardness,to prevent people’s masses from building their mass organizations, doing so as they associate themselves in organizations (trade unions, associations, etc.) led by men of the regime to selectively repress Communists,

To develop channels for popular masses’ participation in bourgeoisie’s political struggle in a subordinate position, following its parties and exponents, making them believe that so doing they participate in leading the State, that they somehow “are the State”

To satisfy the requests of improvement that the popular masses make more strongly, to give everyone the hope to have a dignified life and feed this hope with some practical result, to envelop every worker in a network of financial bonds (loans, mortgages, bills, taxes, rents, etc.) that every moment make him risk to lose everything or anyway much of its social state and richness if he’s not able to respect fixed deadlines.

Thanks to this regime the imperialist bourgeoisie rules in the imperialist countries. This is the regime that the communists have faced in most of the imperialist countries, (with the exception of the countries and the periods when bourgeoisie adopted the open terroristic dictatorship as Nazism or Fascism). This is the regime still existing in the imperialist countries, even if somewhere, as in Italy, the extreme rightist bourgeoisie is trying to restoring fascism, that anyway it will not be different from the old one. That is why we ask to the forces that are talking of modern fascism what they are talking of.

Who says that we are in a fascist regime says something wrong and damaging. It is wrong, because Fascism is the terrorist dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. It involves consequences and has characteristics everyone knows in Europe and all over the world, many people for having learned them the hard way.

Undoubtedly in Europe and particularly in Italy part of the imperialist bourgeoisie is trying to get at this. Outlawing the youth communist organization of Czech Republis is one of these attempts. The imprisonment of Alessandro della Malva in Italy, and the general attack against CARC Party and against all the organizations of the caravan of the (n)PCI are “fascism testing” as well. Also the attack against Rosarno migrants is this. Italy is a forefront of the clash between reactionary and revolutionary mobilization of people’s masses.

Anyway, they are all attempts. To say that we are already in a fascist regime, modern or not, means to say that enemy has already won. That is why it is a damaging thesis. It does not allow to organize people’s masses to defend the conquests and the political freedom they, in Italy, had been able to wring out from the bourgeoisie by the war of Resistance and workers struggles followed in the decades after the Second World War, and that the bourgeoisie has not been able to destroy completely. It does not allow uniting the struggle of these people’s masses with the struggle of migrants, who are the first target of the “fascism testing” of racists, fascists and Mafia men of Berlusconi’s gang.

This unity between autochthonous and migrants’ people’s masses is a necessary means for winning. This unity is a means that guarantees victory.

On behalf of the Confederation of Workers from Turkey in Europe; we condemn the modern slavery, degrading, oppressive, racist, fascist-minded policies of the Italian government and state. Once more we declare that we will not cease to protect the right of migrants where we will be. We call upon the Italian and international democratic-progressive public opinion, unions, human rights organizations and activists to act more to defend the rights of migrants. Long live the international unity of workers and the fraternity of people!

End to the civil-bureaucracy-police and mafia cooperative racist aggression in Italy!

Solidarity with the attacked African (illegal, legal) migrants!

Democratic rights of migrants are also human rights!

End to the aggression against migrants and refugees!

The EU 2010 Return Directives should be stopped immediately!

Conclusions

In Italy, but also elsewhere, there is only one way for defending migrants’ rights and interests. As we told in the 23rd Thesis of our Second Congress (November 2009), “communists and progressive people must committ themselves on a large scale in order to favour by all means migrants’ organization and mobilization to defend their rights and to favour the unity between the auchtoctonous and the migrant people’s masses in the common struggle against bourgeoisie and its system of mysery and exploitation”. They will do so advancing in the revolutionary struggle for establishing socialism in their countries. This is the core of the matter, and it is very important that every force of the international communist movement and of the resistance movement of the people’s masses all over the world become aware of this.We thank very much the Turkish comrades for their statement that reveals a deep attention to many details of the political struggle ongoing in Italy. Mainly we thank them for the opportunity they gave us to start a debate within the international antifascist and antiracist movement about some most importante and decisive issues.